“A cynic would describe Microsoft’s approach to the music player market as simple Apple envy. The iPod has dominant market share and is helping Apple increase its small share of the PC market. So I’ve got to imagine that many in the inner sanctums of Redmond are hot to introduce a slick phone from Microsoft,” Saul Hansell reports for The New York Times.
“I pressed J Allard on this when I met him earlier this week. Mr. Allard runs Microsoft’s Zune unit and handles some other development for its Entertainment and Devices division, which includes the Windows Mobile phone operating system,” Hansell reports. “Microsoft prefers to work with partners, he said, referring to cellphone makers, but he added that ‘we’ll never say never’ to making a Microsoft phone.”
Hansell reports comments made by J Allard which include:
• People are buying [iPhone] because it’s an Apple phone, not because it’s an iPod. It’s a lousy iPod. You can’t skip a track without looking at it. You can’t go running with the thing.
MacDailyNews Note: We’ve been running with the iPhone since June. Love the lap timer, too!
• Microsoft will add more features from the Zune into Windows Mobile phones.
MacDailyNews Take: Ooh, phones that squirt!
• We didn’t create the Zune because we were dying to get into the hardware business and take inventory risk. We felt we had to do it… [With Windows], we got to create most of the magic and take none of the financial risk. History isn’t going to repeat that with consumer goods.
MacDailyNews Take: You can say that again (last sentence)! Now, about that “magic,” it’s where, exactly?
Full article here.
“You can say that again (last sentence)! Now, about that “magic,” it’s where, exactly?”
You plant a brown Zune, (try to stop it squirting first), then wait for the beanstalk to grow up to ‘Never Never Land”.
If MS entered the market with a Zune Phone the Windows Mobile makers would pack up and disappear overnight. Plus their attempted monopolising of the music and phone markets as they have with the OS, Server & Office markets would get them back into regulatory trouble.
It is MS’s monopoly of the Server & Office through lack of interplay with alternative clients and server apps that stops other players into these markets. This is what over-protective governments should be looking into.
Bob’s your uncle. It’s Robert’s nickname.
I’ve always though J Allard was a buffoon, but in all fairness, if you follow the link and read the article, he was actually being pretty complimentary to the Apple and the iPhone. I expected much different.
Windows is a lousy OS
PowerPoint is a lousy presentation program
Windows Media Player is a lousy media player
Zune is a lousy portable media player
XBox is a lousy money making machine
Surface is a lousy use for $10,000
Chairs have a lousy chance in Unky Fester’s office
You Potential. Our Passsion is a lousy theme
J is a lousy name . . . isn’t that the name of one of the judges on American’s Next top Model???
The Zune is simply a brown turd, and these imbeciles making it are examples of incompetent morons. They have, are, and continue to fail.
“Microsoft prefers to work with partners, he said, referring to cellphone makers, but he added that ‘we’ll never say never’ to making a Microsoft phone.”
=
“As everyone knows we’re vicious backstabbing bastards, and just like we betrayed our ‘Plays for Sure’ music <strike> suckers</strike> partners, we’ll have no qualms about doing the same to the Windows Mobile cellphone makers if we feel like we might be able to make some extra bucks.”
Sounds like someone has been looking for faults with his iPhone………
Allard, don’t let Ballmer know you have one
Zune unit zappa!
Okay, that was dumb, but anyhow…
What a tool! Obviously under orders by Gates/Ballmer to use their standard tactic… outright lies. I mean seriously, does anyone REALLY think Allard doesn’t know that the iPhone can skip a song by pressing the mic button twice?
Widows: It magically frustrating. Boy after two days restoring our Windows XP workstation, I sure could have used some magic. Sure is magical when Service Pack 2 crashes mid installation, now that is what I call magical.
Geeeez.. just like Ballmer stating on a C/Net interview that no iPods have WiFi in them, or Gates with his everyday Mac comment. ahaha… yeah typical from MS.
It is funny that he refers to something that doesn’t exist (magic) to promote something that doesn’t exist (products that Microsoft makes that people actually want). Note: geeks are not considered people for the sake of this argument.
I don’t know where my comments fit in, but here goes.
Of all the websites I look at on my iPhone, MDN is the one and only one I can count on to not load reliably while on EDGE. I find this ironic and frustrating, as I have been a regular reader of the site for quite a few years now.
MDN, fix this problem. Thanks.
As for the Z*ne, have yet to see one in the wild.
Go easy on Allard. The poor guy wakes up every morning to this:
“Mr. Allard runs Microsoft’s Zune unit and handles some other development for its Entertainment and Devices division, which includes the Windows Mobile phone operating system.”
A waking nightmare!!!!!!
I like my iPhone as an iPod better than my 3G iPod. It does exactly what I need it to do without hacking it. Great Job(s) Apple.
J Allard forgets to mention the fact that the 8 people who bought a Zune so far all started running. As fast as they could.
And Clippy does one poor ass job of paper clipping.
“As for the Z*ne, have yet to see one in the wild.”
That could be brown blindness. You might want to get that checked.
just testing…
I’ve seen exactly one Z*ne. And he returned it to BestBuy the next day. Ouch
I don’t believe for a second that Allard didn’t know you could skip songs by pressing the button on the earbuds microphone..
You know he got an iPhone the day it came out to study and disect it’s features so that they could copy them for a future ZunePhone.
Furthermore, why would he think that you can’t run with the iPhone? It’s flash memory is much more suitable for running than the HD based Zune.
This guy is a schmoe.
Wow, you guys left a lot out of the quote to make it sounds worse than it is. Here’s the full one:
“People are buying it because it’s an Apple phone, not because it’s an iPod. It’s a lousy iPod. You can’t skip a track without looking at it. You can’t go running with the thing. It is the first consumer product that has done browsing [on a cellphone] extremely well.
[The success of the iPhone] is the hangover from their relentless pursuit of building beautiful products for 25 years. That is their brand. [Consumers are saying that] Steve [Jobs] and the guys in Cupertino build beautiful products that are simple and they integrate nicely with my life. My phone is hard to use and it’s ugly, so I’ll try theirs.”
So, yes, he’s right on (in my opinion). The iPhone IS a lousy iPod, unfortunately. I CAN’T go running with it or easily change the volume without looking at it. However, as he says, Apple’s the first company to get browsing on a phone perfect and the “guys in Cupertino” DOES build beautiful products.
Stop taking bits of the quotes and removing it from context just to stir an argument!
I’ve been running more with my iPhone than with my Nike+ nano. I carry my phone with me anyway, so why not have it be an iPod? One less device to carry now.
And I love being able to control volume/track via the headset. I couldn’t do that with my nano — I had to keep the nano’s controls locked because the controls would rub in my pocket and change things. That meant needing to pause or skip a track was a real pain — have to fish the thing out of my pocket, unlock it, and fiddle with the controls. With my iPhone, the controls I need are right on my headset! The iPhone is a BETTER iPod.
I do wish Apple adds support for Stereo Bluetooth support. Then you also get play/pause/next/prev as well as answer the phone all at once, without needing a cable to the iPhone [or iPod Touch if you ignore the answer phone part]. It sucks to need an external bluetooth adapter to get functionality that should be included [particularly since it’s software-only].
Why is Anonymous?